RUSSELL Crowe finally had his much-touted family reunion this week - and what a triumph in strategic planning it was, coinciding as it did with his eldest son's ninth birthday and the Australian premiere of his latest blockbuster movie Les Miserables.

That the actor managed to combine the Sydney film premiere, the last stop on a world promotional tour, and Charlie's birthday is probably a credit to Crowe, the film star.

This week was always going to be difficult for Crowe, his two sons and his estranged wife, Danielle Spencer.

After months apart, Crowe was finally coming home on the back of a flurry of tweets (received by some 675,000 fans) in which he very publicly expressed a desire for something private. Family time.

In the end it wasn't just family that brought him home.

It was the business - the very thing that has taken him away from his family. And Christmas.

One can only imagine how Spencer would have felt on Thursday when confronted with the sight of the forlorn and closely shorn Crowe standing in her driveway holding a plastic bag of gifts.

How does a woman who had the strength to end what she believes is an untenable marriage steal herself for a reunion that has been promoted and anticipated around the world for months?

How could she or anyone not be moved by the sight of a long absent father standing in the driveway, one hand thrust deep in a pocket as though searching for a house key he seems not to possess?

The unsolicited PR campaign for Crowe's family reunion has nearly eclipsed the extravagant PR campaign undertaken for the very film that has, this writer assumes, paid for his ticket home.

In London, the press reported Crowe's separation from his sons Charlie and Tennyson, 6, hit him "hard". In the US, it's been reported that the actor is "upset".

With there being little compelling evidence the actor has been unfaithful to his wife, the whole world is watching and hoping that Crowe, a reformed bad boy in Hollywood's books, can successfully engineer a reunion with Spencer, his wife of 12 years.

If he does, it could be one of the greatest celluloid comebacks since Robert Downey Jr's rehabilitation.

Interestingly, on arrival in Sydney, Crowe didn't go straight to the Rose Bay property that Spencer and the boys call home.

He went instead to his apartment at Woolloomooloo, where he took a few hours to collect himself and a car before driving slowly on to Rose Bay at midday.

He then pulled up in her driveway and attempted, with little success, to open her garage door.

It seems that having been abroad for the past three months - and estranged from his wife for many months prior - he was unable to identify her remote control in the collection of remotes in his car.

Eventually he emerged wearing that forlorn, vulnerable and tortured expression fans know well - it helped to earn him an Oscar for Gladiator and a BAFTA for A Beautiful Mind, after all.

Upon finding the correct remote, he finally let himself in via the garage.

Shortly after, an assistant arrived carrying a laundry basket full of clothing and a freshly dry-cleaned dress.

Within minutes of Crowe's arrival, Spencer, in a surprise floral blue dress, left the house. With her mother at her side, the two cleared out to give the actor and his sons some privacy for their long-awaited reunion.

They returned later when Crowe had departed.

It's believed the two boys went back to Crowe's apartment and stayed the night with him there.

Just what Spencer's dress tells us about this "reunion" - witnesses say the couple were together for under 10 minutes - is unclear.

Here is a woman who dresses like a rock 'n' roll chick and is rarely seen out of jeans and black yoga pants.

What was she doing in a pretty, blue, mumsy, floral frock? Should we believe she is so eager to reunite with her pretty dress-loving ex that she is willing to shelve her own personal style to delight him?

Surely psychoanalysts would take one look at that dress and declare this does not bode well for a reunion.

Or is this a reunion straight out of a Hollywood publicist's handbook?

A carefully co-ordinated public affair that could even inadvertently help Crowe in his bid for a best supporting actor Oscar nomination?

Crowe has much to commend him as a husband.

He is rich, he loves his sons and he comes from a solid and loving working-class background where family is valued above all else.

Only the independent, non-superficial Spencer knows if this will be enough.

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